Enable a European single market in seeds

Although it has been globally agreed that a low level adventitious presence of biotech seeds is acceptable in conventional and organic seed lots and therefore for trade, one issue that is not addressed by the EU regulatory regime concerns the establishment of threshold levels for that adventitious presence.
 
Since 1998, industry and governments have requested that labeling thresholds for the adventitious presence of biotech seeds in seed lots be established in order to safeguard the EU single market in traded seeds.
 
Given that no EU thresholds in seeds have been set so far by the European Commission, Member States have taken the liberty to interpret locally how to deal with this issue, thus setting ad hoc and variable thresholds for labeling and trade in the different Member States. This has created new trade barriers and led to significant disruptions of the single market.
 
The political will for developing a proposal has been recently re-stated by the highest levels of the institutions:
  • In March 2005 during its orientation debate on GMOs, the European Commission stressed the urgency of establishing thresholds – and agreed to do so.
  • In April 2006, the Austrian Presidency concluded that the setting of thresholds was a priority.
  • In May 2006, the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers asked for a proposal on EU thresholds as soon as possible.

The science and data on economic and environmental impacts on which to base a proposal exists.

  • In December 2005, the seed industry provided extensive information about economic impacts.
  • In February 2006, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre produced a scientific study with environmental impacts of different threshold levels.
  • Throughout 2006, seed companies provided further information about economic impact.
     

Suggested solutions
  
As a matter of urgency, the European Commission should publish a proposal to establish technically practical, proportionate and economically viable EU-level labeling thresholds for the adventitious presence of biotech seeds in seed lots.
 
This matter should be given the utmost priority in order to reestablish the single market for the free movement of seeds within the European Union.
Green Biotechnology Manifesto [Print version] PDF